Statement by Minister Counselor Mr. Yao Wenlong at the General Debate of the 2nd Committee of 60th UNGA Session

2005/10/04

2005/10/04

Mr. Chairman,

First of all, I would like to congratulate Your Excellency for being elected Chairman of the Second Committee of the current session. The Chinese Delegation will cooperate closely with you and the bureau to bring the work of our committee to a successful conclusion. The Chinese delegation also supports the statement made by the representative of Jamaica on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Mr. Chairman,

Civilization, prosperity and development are ideals sought by generations after generations. They are also purposes for our founders when they first built the United Nations. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, national leaders reaffirmed once again that "development is a central goal by itself", expressing the common aspiration of the people of the entire world. Development is the foundation of human civilization and progress, and the key to a wide spectrum of global issues, including security and stability. The development cluster in the 2005 world summit outcome document not only formally endorses the MDGs and reaffirmed other internationally agreed development goals, but also covers extensive areas, reflecting the consensus in looking at and dealing with the development issue from the comprehensive point of view.

We are faced with both unprecedented opportunities and grave challenges. On the one hand, continued development of economic globalization, rapid progress of science and technology, marked improvement of productive forces, as well as the wealth, resources and technologies possessed by mankind have all created valuable opportunities to remove poverty and backwardness. While on the other hand, poverty and hunger continue to prevail in many countries and regions, the development is seriously unbalanced, and the gap between the North and the South is widening further. Trade tariffs, debt burden, and spread of diseases constitute major obstacles blocking the development process for the large number of developing countries and upsetting the world endeavor for common prosperity and universal development. Facts have shown that unbalanced global development is structural. Common development requires vision, political will and determination of all parties with concerted efforts and shared responsibilities. In recent years, wide-ranging consensus has been reached at a series of world summits, and the 2005 UN summit has also provided thoughts for follow-up actions.

The key to development lies in timely and effective actions. The end of a world summit is the beginning of implementation. The international community should continue to focus on development and adopt bold, specific and practical measures to turn words into actions and creating new opportunities for global development. To be more specific, it is necessary to give priority to the following areas:

1. Making consistent efforts to deal with the structural issue. In order to realize the MDGs, it is essential to remove structural obstacles. We should therefore speed up the establishment of a fair and equitable new international economic order. The new order should reflect by nature the interests of most countries, make world economic structure and rules more fair and equitable, and especially give full expression to the concerns of developing countries, so that they will make use of their comparative advantages. This will help economic globalization move towards balanced development, universal benefit and win-win situation. We should also make vigorous efforts to establish an open, fair and non-discriminative multilateral trade system, further improve international financial system, and increase participation and influence of developing countries in international trade and financial institutions, thus creating healthy and orderly trade environment and stable and effective financial environment for world economic growth. International economic structural reform is a long-term process, and we should make full use of the dialogue mechanism between the United Nations and the international trade and financial institutions, persuade the institutions concerned to put structural issues on top of their agenda, conduct in-depth discussions, reach consensus step by step, and push the whole process forward steadily.

At present, WTO Doha Rounds is at a critical juncture. The international community should make joint efforts to make Doha Rounds reflect the theme of development, and give greater consideration to the interests of developing countries. The developed countries in particular should open up their markets, remove agricultural product subsidies, and genuinely implement "special and differential treatment". Resolute actions should be taken by all parties to help bring about a successful conclusion of Doha Rounds in 2006, achieve comprehensive and balanced results.

2. Vigorously consolidating and expanding global partnership. A true partnership should be built on mutual commitments and shared responsibilities. In recent years, the developing countries have stood at the forefront of the reform, taken bold actions in seeking development paths suitable to their national conditions, and scored world-renowned achievements. At the just-concluded 2005 UN summit, the developing countries showed great courage and expressed their determination to continue structural reform, improve governance, enhance South-South cooperation, and reinforce self-development. In order to assist the efforts of developing countries, the developed countries should show their political will, create a good external economic environment, fulfill their commitments and adopt concrete measures on such major issues as poverty eradication, financial aid and debt relief, including achieving internationally agreed targets of ODA. At the same time, countries should fully mobilize their civil society and private sectors, and encourage their participation, so as to realize mutual complementarity with governments and accelerate economic growth with joint efforts.

3. Strengthening the role of the United Nations in international cooperation on development. Our organization should carry out the reform more forcefully and play a leading role in reaching consensus, formulating rule and expanding participation. It should reinforce its coordination and cooperation with the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF and other international and regional agencies, so as to create an enabling international environment for countries and especially developing countries and provide them with powerful assistance and support for development. We are in favor of further enhancing the coordinating capability of the ECOSOC, unifying and coordinating follow-up actions in implementing outcomes of major UN conferences and summits, and building closer ties between the ECOSOC and other funds, programs and specialized agencies for better development policy coherence. The ECOSOC should also promote the efforts to construct an evaluation framework for implementation of the MDGs, which can both evaluate the domestic progress at the national level and supervise and evaluate the implementation of international cooperation and development aid.

4. Offering priority aid to countries with special needs. Countries in Africa and especially those south of Sahara are faced with numerous difficulties in development. It has become a focus of world attention. The African countries have made tireless efforts for development and revitalization on African continent, winning world respect. The international community should focus more on African long-term stability and development, offer assistance to where it needs most, and help African countries in implementing "New Partnership for Africa's Development". The least developed countries have been marginalized in the process of development, and are faced with special difficulties. Efforts to help them overcome difficulties will contribute greatly to achieving the MDGs at the global level. The international community should make urgent efforts to offer timely and effective support and assistance according to their needs.

Mr. Chairman,

South-South cooperation has reflected the spirit of self-reliance and solidarity among developing countries. It is also a useful way to enhance international cooperation on development. As the biggest developing country in the world, China always attaches great importance to its relations with developing countries and is committed to strengthening South-South cooperation. At the 2005 UN summit, President Hu Jintao announced a package of new measures aimed at consolidating economic cooperation between China and other developing countries, including five areas of finance, debt, trade, capacity building and public health. This has demonstrated China's readiness and sincerity to promote international development and cooperation. We will also conduct more exchanges with developing countries to find new concepts and ways for South-South cooperation, so as to help each other more effectively and achieve common development.

China is ready to work with the rest of the international community to enhance universal and balanced development and make the 21st century a true "century of development for all".